The disclosure relates to privacy-preserving search techniques. More particularly, the methods and systems described herein relate to generating probabilistically searchable messages.
Electronically conveyed messages, such as email messages, can furnish a convenient means of communication, but they also give rise to security concerns. If transmitted according to conventional protocols, such messages may be readily examined by intercepting third parties or mined for advertisement purposes by email services. Encrypting messages prevents unwanted parties from reading them, but typically decreases the convenience of using the messages as a result. In particular, while electronic messages are typically searchable, encrypted messages typically are not; the service provider that performs the searches cannot index encrypted messages because the message contents are obfuscated.